Former Spanish Open winner Peter Lawrie has described the continued overlooking of Miguel Ángel Jiménez as Ryder Cup captain as "a disgrace."
Lawrie was speaking on Golf Weekly and said that the Spaniard's love for the European Tour made him a perfect candidate for European captain.
"I think it was a disgrace that he didn't get it. He should have been pushier for it. But in the end, they gave the excuse that it was his English.
"My point to that was, it's the European Tour why does he need to speak English?
"He can have an interpreter and possibly he would have been better off with an interpreter because even when he speaks Spanish the Spanish lads said – with his accent – he is quite difficult to understand anyway."
For Lawrie, the only reason the eccentric Spaniard has not been a Ryder Cup captain is "politics" that has served against him.
"It was pure politics, absolutely," Lawrie noted. "And it's just disappointing for the career that he had, he didn't get the Ryder Cup captaincy."
Lawrie was most disappointed with the oversight of Jiménez as he had always been dedicated to the bettering of the European Tour.
"He was heavily against players not playing in their own Open," Lawrie recalled.
"He was all for the European Tour and forcing the players to do everything he did, which was support the Tour. If you didn't support the Tour then you weren't in his good books."
Long known as one of the most eccentric and interesting golfers in Europe, Lawrie said that Jiménez was a golfer who, while dedicated, also did what he liked.
As an example, Nathan Murphy recalled his memory of the bizarre moment when Jimémez warmed up with the leaders on the final day at the Open Championship in Royal Portrush, despite having already been cut.
"Brooks Koepka is there, Jordan Spieth is there," Murphy recounted, "and right there in the middle, standing two feet away from Shane Lowry, is Jiménez. Not hitting balls but putting balls on a tee for who I can only assume is his son, who is just smacking balls."
"Jimenez has got the cigar, he'd then take the club off him hit a few balls, hand it back to his son who would hit for 20 minutes."
Lawrie said that from his experience of Jiménez on the Tour, that story was indicative of his mentality, which is to not worry about what people think of him.
"I think what Nathan is describing there is someone who has a conscious thought of what's going on around him. Jimenez would be very much I'm doing this I'm not in anybody's way, I'm not doing anything so what's wrong with it."
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